Downtown Eatery Adds Modern Cocktail & Food Lab

Earlier this year, Café 21 pulled up stakes at its downtown location to move up the street into a larger venue left empty by Croce's shift to Park West.

They kept their 5th Avenue site and now C21 Restaurant Group, which also runs the original Café 21 in University Heights, gave us the download on their new concept for the space, which has a test run scheduled for this week, just in time for Comic-Con.

Zymology 21 will be a lounge and eatery serving brunch, dinner and late night cocktails daily. It'll be decked out like a lab, featuring a molecular mixology menu that includes test tube cocktail flights, drinks in beakers and boozy frozen pops they're calling "Z-sicles".

Co-founder and exec chef Leyla Javadov is still concocting some of Zymology 21's food offerings, with the final and finished restaurant officially debuting in early September. For this week's soft preview, expect hand-held pies called "Sampiernadas", chicken and waffles, savory Dutch pancakes and a test of their new siphon coffee system.
· Café 21 [Official Site]
· All Expansionwire Coverage on Eater [~ESD~]